ALL NOVEL Chapter 305
As the Demon King couldn’t hide his surprise and took a step back, Margaret tore open the gunpowder bag with her mouth and loaded her rifle. Bang! With that sound, a bullet lodged itself into the back of the Demon King. The Demon King, spewing blood from his mouth, fell to the ground with a thud.
“Monsters… too persistent, almost like beasts!”
In the next moment, Jeongjae approached, wielding the Holy Sword, and cut off the Demon King’s other wing. The Demon King staggered, barely avoiding a complete fall to the side, and retaliated by punching Jeongjae in the chest, knocking the Hero back.
With a groan, Jeongjae reattached his cracked rib. Harriet’s glasses, which had been in his possession, seemed to have shattered, but that wasn’t really important right now.
Margaret reloaded her rifle again and aimed for the Demon King’s body, firing a shot into the back of his head.
With a bullet piercing his skull, the Demon King screamed once more. As he nervously tried to cast magic to attack Margaret, the Elf Lord sprang up playfully, easily dodging the attack while taunting the Demon King.
Rose stood still, not moving, perhaps due to the severe blood loss, but just by being there, she was making her presence known. Margaret left several small wounds on the Demon King’s body. Violet Moriarty, writhing in pain, ultimately gave up fighting in the open and crawled away to hide among her army.
Seeing the Demon King flee, Jeongjae and Margaret rushed over to Rose.
“Rose, are you okay?”
“No, don’t you think it looks like I’m not okay at all?”
The Emperor looked bewildered at Jeongjae’s question. Jeongjae hurriedly used magic to clear the blood that had dripped down Rose’s face, then bandaged her wounds and laid her down on the ground. Soon, the royal guards approached Rose and checked her condition.
“The Emperor…”
“There’s no threat to her life. But I can’t restore her eyes.”
Margaret nodded at Jeongjae’s words.
“Looks like she’ll only see the world with one eye for the rest of her life.”
“Ah.”
Rose had a look of relief on her face.
“After all, my half-world flew away long ago. Seeing the world with half a view might suit me better.”
“Half… world…”
As if recalling something, Jeongjae reached into his pocket and pulled out Harriet’s shattered glasses. The Grand Mage flicked the lenses of the glasses, then filled the spot with a golden cloth and handed it to Rose.
“Want to use it? With a little adjustment, it might work as a blindfold.”
“Thank you.”
Rose took the makeshift blindfold and placed it over her face. Once again, Rose, the Emperor, wore Harriet’s glasses on her face. However, her eyes were obscured not by lenses that saw the future, but by a golden cloth that shrouded her world.
“How is the war… going?”
“We are winning. The enemy is already demoralized, retreating, or surrendering. Breaking into the Demon King’s Castle is only a matter of time!”
The soldier answered without holding back. Margaret said,
“Then that’s the problem. Rose, can you take command outside the castle from here?”
“You two will infiltrate the castle and chase after him?”
“That’s exactly it.”
Rose nodded as if it were not a difficult task.
“Okay. That’s the kind of mission that suits you two. Leave the army to me. And definitely return after taking the Demon King’s head. I trust you, my sister and my friend.”
Jeongjae nodded once towards Rose, bowing slightly, and then turned his back with Margaret.
It was not a lie to say the situation was overwhelmingly favorable. In fact, there were no forces to block the two from reaching the entrance of the Demon King’s Castle, and the atmosphere had completely shifted—Moriarty’s era was ending, and a new world was emerging.
The soldiers continued to shout “Home! Home!” as they fought. Whether it meant returning home victorious from this fight, or that this place, the birthplace of the Audrich Duchy, was the true home of the Empire, each would have a different interpretation. But the battle cry was one, and the hearts were united.
The allied forces were winning this fight.
“Let’s go. We know something our allies don’t. If Moriarty returned inside, he will definitely try to tinker with the machine.”
“Right. We should hurry, just in case.”
There was no certainty that the machine had been rebuilt. But there were definitely clues to infer from Violet’s attitude. Several siege cannons had already approached the castle gates, heavily bombarding them.
Margaret held Jeongjae’s hand tightly and shared a bit of her mana with him. Today, for some reason, the rejection to another’s mana felt very faint.
Jeongjae pointed to the cannon batteries and gave a short command.
“Infinite Bombardment Magic, Van Fleet.”
And within just 3 seconds, the entrance to the Demon King’s Castle collapsed. A few Elf soldiers crossed the moat with their ropes and seized the drawbridge on the other side. As the bridge was lowered, the allies attempted to charge into the castle, but Jeongjae stopped them.
“The entities inside are extremely dangerous. We’ll go in first and check. You all handle the situation outside the castle. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes, Hero! Please, take care of yourselves!”
“Princess! You must return alive!”
Everyone cheered on the two as they headed toward the hellish castle. All expectations were placed on the pair, and all the responsibility weighed on the shoulders of the two lovers.
And within, the living demon, bleeding profusely, stumbled down to the underground.
“Alone, standing alone. I’ve already lost everything.”
Violet coughed up blood with every cough, clutching at her insides. She had sustained immense wounds and internal bleeding from the recent battle, and there was not a single part of her body that was uninjured.
The diamond pieces once attached to her clothes had vanished somewhere, and her horns had started to creak, as if they would fall off any moment.
“I’ve had no generals, officers, or comrades to support me, and now even my army has vanished…”
The Demon King’s limbs were still attached, but they were as good as severed. Like her two wings that had already been cut off, her ascent toward the world had also been forever broken.
It was over. Just like the first Demon King Terkeon, and all the subsequent Demon Kings that followed him, Violet Moriarty’s grand endeavor was crumbling away.
The magic placed to defend the castle had been obliterated by ruthless bombardment. The enemies continued to attack with iron tubes and shells thereafter, eventually hearing the sound of the castle gates breaking and the drawbridge descending.
Would the enemy army break in? If so, Moriarty would fight back.
Would the enemy heroes invade? Even then, Moriarty would fight back.
The goal of seizing the continent by military power had already been extinguished, but she still had one thing left.
In the basement, the zombie of James Moriarty was still screeching as he restored his most magnificent masterpiece.
“The, the machine, has been, completed.”
The zombie of James Moriarty reported to the Demon King.
Hundreds of glass tubes, thousands of glass tubes, the mana circuits supporting them, and one mana output device connected at the end of that circuit.
Commonly known as the Gate.
“Rest easy, father. Rest easy.”
Violet reached out and grabbed James Moriarty’s neck, twisting it. In her pitiful state, Violet couldn’t even smile at the dream machine she had longed for her entire life.
She emotionlessly killed James Moriarty as if smashing a useless machine, and without any thrill, she watched as the door to another world opened at the end of that machine.
Could that world exist beyond there?
A world where magic doesn’t exist, but some very strange things have developed. The world her father destroyed and sought to dominate, a world of gunpowder, steam engines, and technology.
Did the British Empire still rule that world? No, she thought she had heard it was somewhat different. But how different? Did Europe fall? Is it still strong? She heard that the New World had become the world’s hegemon, but to what extent was that hegemony?
But if she crossed over, she would know.
If she went beyond, she would see.
She could dominate that world and return to this one with its resources and find a way to conquer this world again.
“The ruler of both worlds.”
Violet murmured her dream.
“I don’t know what I will gain from it. I’m not even sure if there’s anyone left to follow me now.”
Footsteps were heard. One was an elf, and the other was a human.
The Demon King turned to greet the two rushing down to the basement with a smile.
“However, welcome to the end of history, heroes.”